Our Homeland Isn't Secure At All

September 11, 2005|Al Starkman Boynton Beach

Think about this: Despite the fact that prior to 9-11, the disaster planners at the Federal Emergency Management Agency had identified three major catastrophic scenarios facing the United States, and that one of these was a direct hurricane strike on New Orleans, we simply were not prepared for Hurricane Katrina.

The question that follows is clear: If the devastation on the Gulf Coast had been caused by a weapon of mass destruction rather than an act of nature, what assurances do we have that the federal response would have been any different? None.

So, with all the talk about Homeland Security and wasting so many of our resources, in both lives and money, in order to fight a war to establish a democracy in a place that doesn't seem to want to be democratized, and the talk about fighting "terror" elsewhere rather than here at home, our homeland doesn't seem to be secure at all. Look at the "terror" on the faces of the hurricane victims that we see every day in our newspapers and on television. The president saying that "our response has not been acceptable" is not an acceptable response.

And finally, countries that are not especially fans of ours, such as Cuba, France, Russia, Venezuela and the United Nations itself, among others, are offering aid. We should be thankful to all of them, but at the same time, we should ask why they had to come to the assistance of the most affluent country in the world, a country that can move tons of equipment into Iraq at a moment's notice, but not into Louisiana and Mississippi.